PROLEGOMENA TO A NEW ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY: WHAT IT MEANS TO KNOW AND THE UNIVERSITY

In this essay, Peter Trifonas tries to show that there is no overcoming of the techno-philosophical grounding of intellectual freedom and academic responsibility or research action within the speculum of an all-seeing, all-knowing university. Instead, he argues that through Derrida's notion of an open "community of the question," deconstruction has the promise to infuse the university and its teaching body with the play of difference in interpretation and invention that will produce new forms of knowledge and an altered academic responsibility. This new academic responsibility born of a deconstruction of the university and its closed system of disciplinary logic is worked out as a performative intelligibility or an inkling of purpose "yet-to-come" ( avenir ). The call for an open community of research around questions and not disciplines displays the ethical undercurrent of a new kind of academic responsibility—a responsibility negotiated both within the extant community and between that community and those to whom the highly problematic "we" of "higher" education are more or less ultimately accountable: the State and the political constituency of public society.     

THE ELUSIVE CONCEPT OF QUALITY: WHAT JUNIOR AND SENIOR COLLEGE PRESIDENTS THINK

Because it is difficult to describe higher education quality or indicators of quality to the general public, this study was developed to determine if educational leaders had definitions that might prove useful. From 20 presidents of two‐ and four‐year colleges seven different definitions of quality emerged; and among indicators of quality, none was named by all or even a majority of presidents. Most presidents rated their own institutions as being of high quality but based their rating on different factors than they had identified as indicators of quality. In rating other colleges, presidents identified indicators different from those they had for their own campuses. Most differences among presidents did not appear to be based on the type of institutions they led. The results of this study indicate that educational leaders must begin to agree on definitions and indicators of quality before they can hope to present a united front to the public.     

THE EMERGING LOUISIANA COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM: BACK TO BASICS AND DOWN TO BUSINESS

Online Student Service provides all Houston Community College (HCC) students and its surrounding community access to college information 24/7. Queries may be made regarding the admissions process, financial aid, testing, veterans' affairs, international admission, tuition costs, and programs and courses offered at each HCC location. Also available to system users are interactive online advising and access to a variety of general information.     

WHAT YOU KNOW AND HOW YOU WRITE IT: A PROJECT FOR TEACHING AND ASSESSING WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Writing evaluation conventionally relies on essay tests, but more informal methods can help reveal students' writing skills. A classroom project was designed to examine students' awareness of the demands posed by various academic writing, tasks, to discover how that awareness develops with experience, and to orient new students to the roles writing plays in their academic lives. The project involved three groups: freshmen enrolled in introductory writing classes for the first time, freshmen and others repeating the introductory classes, and upperclass students enrolled in a course in professional writing. At the beginning of the semester, all were asked to report any information they could find that would help them complete the semester's writing tasks. At the end of the semester they added information they had gained in the interval. Reports from all groups contained the same kinds of information, but students in professional writing noted more often that purposes of assignments related to goals for the course, while the freshmen added more late information about writing processes. The project was a valuable learning activity and suggested what roles writing plays in students' academic lives. Similar projects should be included in a thorough assessment of writing programs.     

THE UNITED KINGDOM: A STAFF COLLEGE APPROACH TO THE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Training and further education for ‐professionals involved in the. administration and management of higher education institutions can be considered as essential elements in the introduction of the concept of lifelong education, as well as important factors for promoting efficiency in higher education institutions.

We give below information on the Further Education Staff College Coombe’ Lodge, an institution providing this type of training for professional staff of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.     

THE EFFECT OF ACADEMIC FACTORS ON TRANSFER STUDENT PERSISTENCE AND GRADUATION: A COMMUNITY COLLEGE TO LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE CASE STUDY

Critics contend that enrollment in a community college lessens the likelihood that a student will complete a bachelor's degree (S. Brint & J. Karabel, 1989). A number of studies have examined personal, demographic, and environmental characteristics that influence the academic performance of community college transfer students. This research has included characteristics that are not readily available to admissions representatives at four‐year institutions, and studies have not considered the private, liberal arts college as the senior institution.

The purpose of this study was to identify easily ascertainable characteristics that occur prior to transfer and to assess the relationship of these characteristics to persistence and baccalaureate attainment at a private, liberal arts college. Two academic factors related to persistence and graduation were included in the methodology: completion of the associate (AA) degree and community college grade point average (GPA) The subjects for the study were 200 students who completed the AA degree and transferred from one of three community colleges to a private, liberal arts college over a 5‐year period.

Results indicated that whereas completion of the AA degree resulted in a higher persistence/graduation rate, completion of the AA degree with a community college GPA of 3.0 or higher increased the persistence/graduation rate to a level equal to that of native students.     

COMPARISON OF THE BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY-II AND THE INVENTORY TO DIAGNOSE DEPRESSION: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE COUNSELORS

Community college counselors need to assess depressive symptoms in students and to differentiate depressive symptoms from anxiety symptoms to help them implement crisis intervention strategies. Two instruments available to the community college counselor are the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD). This article, which is based on the published literature, reports on and discusses the construct and discriminant validities of the BDI-II and IDD so that community college counselors may use them with knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of each instrument. Although results should be interpreted with caution, both instruments are useful in measuring the presence or absence of depressive symptoms.     

INCEPTION,GROWTH, AND DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

Community colleges, increasingly, are having to look for funding sources other than state revenues, local taxation, and student fees and tuition. More and more community colleges are recognizing fund raising as an alternative funding source. Because community college fund raising is in an embryonic stage, research addressing community college foundations has been limited. This research project involved a case study of one community college foundation. The project looked at why the foundation was established, what factors influenced the development of the foundation, and the way it evolved to the present day. The findings are suggestive to other community colleges seeking to begin a foundation or to strengthen the existing one.     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ATTRACTION TO AN ENGLISH COURSE: THE ASSOCIATIONS AMONG STUDENT GENDER,THE GENDER OF THE AUTHOR OF ASSIGNED READING,AND THE STYLE OF READING

This article reports the results of a factorial experiment that investigated the reactions of male and female students to a hypothetical English course offered at the community college level. The participants (N = 136) consisted of students enrolled in English 101 courses at four community colleges in a southeastern state. The independent variables were gender of the student, gender of the author assigned, and the type of reading assigned (narrative, expository). The dependent variable was a composite rating of student attraction to the English course. Females rated the course more favorably than males, and testing detected an interaction effect between gender of the student and the gender of the writer. Females preferred female authors, and males were attracted to male authors. There also was an interaction effect between gender of the author and style of writing. Participants preferred female authors and expository style. The findings have practical implications for educational programs, English instructors, and future research.     

TRANSFER RATES AMONG STUDENTS FROM RURAL,SUBURBAN, AND URBAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES: WHAT WE KNOW,DON'T KNOW,AND NEED TO KNOW

During the past decade much thought has been given to the merits and weaknesses of different ways of calculating transfer rates. This debate, although legitimate and necessary, has not led to research on transfer rates among colleges in different geographic locations. Furthermore, the lack of consensus and sometimes neglect in defining geographic location has reduced the reliability of the data that do exist. This article examines what is known about transfer rates by geographic location and what remains to be studied. Findings on differences by ethnic group and location also are presented. Although there are indications that students from rural areas differ from their urban and suburban counterparts, there has been little work that explores the impact of those differences on transfer rates. The need for further research on transfer rates and college location is also addressed.     

THE CLUE TO CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: UNITING THEOLOGY AND EDUCATION, 1950 TO THE PRESENT

Christian religious educators in the Religious Education Association are challenged to reclaim their theological nerve and their partnership in public conversations about the educational practices of U.S. society. Beginning with the work of Randolph Crump Miller in the 1950s, this essay traces through the pages of Religious Education the dialogue about the partnership of education and theology. A practical theology of education is offered where the teaching and forming of Christian identity is complemented with a public theological examination of educational practices and meanings in the wider culture.